Angels drop a thriller after Suarez's rough start

ANAHEIM -- It was a wild game that saw a little bit of everything, but ultimately two of the Angels’ biggest issues early this season proved costly.

Lefty José Suarez continued his struggles, allowing five homers and seven runs over five innings, only to see the Angels erase a six-run deficit. But they couldn’t hold a one-run lead in the ninth, as they blew their Major League-leading seventh save in an 11-10 loss in 10 innings to the last-place A’s in Monday night's series opener at Angel Stadium.

Suarez has been their biggest liability in the rotation, posting a 10.26 ERA with 12 strikeouts, nine walks and seven homers allowed in 16 2/3 innings this season. It’s enough of an issue that the Angels are deciding whether to move him to the bullpen and shift lefty Tucker Davidson into a starting role after excelling in relief. Davidson threw 2 1/3 scoreless innings on Monday, and has posted a 2.40 ERA with 15 strikeouts and five walks allowed in 15 frames.

“That's a conversation we're gonna have to have, to be quite honest,” said manager Phil Nevin. “The first three [innings] were not good, obviously. We were thin out there. I had to run him as far along as I could. The fourth and the fifth, he got back to what we've seen in the past. Looked like he had some anger behind it and made some good secondary pitches, got some strikeouts.”

Suarez gave up all five homers in the first three innings and became just the third Angels pitcher to surrender five homers in a game, joining Nick Tropeano (July 26, 2018) and Willie Fraser (Aug. 17, 1988). But as Nevin noted, he did settle down, retiring 10 of the final 11 batters he faced.

Suarez said he believes he was tipping pitches, as both center fielder Mike Trout and pitching coach Matt Wise explained hitters could tell what was coming because of the way he was positioning his glove.

“I made an adjustment and put my glove on my belly because they told me I was tipping,” Suarez said through an interpreter. “I had better success with my glove on my belly. I was frustrated. But Matt Wise told me I was tipping, and it worked.”

Suarez, though, finds himself in a tough spot. Unlike last year, he can’t be sent down to the Minors to work on his stuff because he’s out of options. He’d have to be exposed to waivers and would certainly be claimed, as he's still just 25 years old and had a 3.96 ERA with 103 strikeouts in 109 innings last season.

Davidson is the most likely candidate to replace Suarez in the rotation, as the two could simply swap roles. Nevin liked what he saw from Davidson, but did note that his velocity dipped a bit in his final inning. Davidson has been used a lot recently, throwing 3 1/3 innings on April 17 and two innings on Thursday against the Yankees.

“Tucker was outstanding,” Nevin said. “We've asked a lot of him lately. Each outing has been big. I saw his velocity dip. So it was really hitter-to-hitter.”

Davidson departed with one out in the eighth and was replaced by right-hander Andrew Wantz, who has been the Angels' best reliever this season. Wantz got out of the eighth but walked the first two batters in the ninth and the Angels went with long reliever Jaime Barria because Carlos Estévez and José Quijada were both unavailable.

• Barria couldn’t hold the lead and walked in the tying run. He was also aided by Taylor Ward, who robbed A's catcher Shea Langeliers of a grand slam to end the inning and keep the score tied at 8-8.

But Barria allowed three runs in the top of the 10th that proved to be too much, especially with Luis Rengifo making a baserunning mistake and getting thrown out at second on a bloop single to left field.

Brandon Drury made it a one-run game with his second homer of the game, but Trout grounded out to third with two on to end it.

The Angels have had the lead in 20 of their 23 games this season but fell to 11-12 on the year, as they’ve had trouble finishing off games.

“We’ve certainly had leads,” Nevin said. “So, yeah, that's disappointing, but I'm confident in those guys. I’m not going to say we didn’t have our dudes today. We have guys who can get outs. Everybody down there has to get outs when we play 18 straight games and we need to get guys rest. Everybody is going to need to get big outs.”